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Dear all,<br>
<br>
Does anybody know of languages in which 'give' and 'do'/'make' are
expressed with the same or related words? Or of cases in which
forms expressing one of these two meanings are historically derived
from forms expressing the other meaning? <br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
<br>
David <br>
<br>
<br>
Further details: <br>
<br>
My interest in this question stems from current field work on Roon
(South Halmahera West New Guinea, Austronesian). In Roon there is a
single form <i>be</i> expressing both 'give' and 'do'/'make'.
(In fact, the same form <i>be </i>is associated with a wide range
of grammatical and semantic functions, most or all of which seem to
be derivable diachronically and possibly also synchronically from
either 'give' or 'do'/'make'.) A cognate form <i>be </i>meaning
both 'give' and 'do'/'make' is also present in closely related Biak
and Dusner.<br>
<br>
Identical words for 'give' and 'do'/'make' (but unrelated to <i>be</i>)
also occur in at least two nearby non-Austronesian languages, Meyah
and Hatam, and in the geographically proximate Austronesian language
Wooi. However, I have not yet been able to find any other examples
of 'give'-'do'/'make' identity in other languages of the region,
Austronesian or otherwise. Thus, 'give'-'do'/'make' identity seems
to be an areal characteristic of a small region of the eastern
Bird's Head and western Cenderawasih Bay, in which it presumably
spread from the original non-Austronesian to the intrusive
Austronesian languages, through metatypy, relexification, or some
such process.<br>
<br>
In order to gauge the significance of 'give'-'do'/'make' identity as
a diagnostic feature of language contact, I am thus interested in
getting a feel for how widespread this feature is across the world's
languages. For what it's worth, I can't think of any examples from
other parts of the world — can you?<br>
<br>
I am also interested in any ideas you might have about what the
semantic basis of the connection between 'give' and 'do'/'make', and
possible mechanisms of semantic generalization. In the
Roon/Biak/Dusner case, at least, the form <i>be</i> is clearly
cognate with the proto-Malayo-Polynesian word for 'give', suggesting
that the direction of semantic spread was from 'give' to
'do'/'make'. But I have no information on the other known cases
(Meyah, Hatam, Wooi).<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
David Gil
Department of Linguistics
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
Telephone: 49-341-3550321 Fax: 49-341-3550333
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:gil@eva.mpg.de">gil@eva.mpg.de</a>
Webpage: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.eva.mpg.de/%7Egil/">http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/</a>
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